Blame It On Echizen
by Gold
Summary: It's summer. Echizen has a brilliant and preposterous idea, involving street tennis courts. Momoshiro encourages it, gets to work on it, and convinces the rest of Seigaku to trot along for the ride.
1. Chapter 1

_© 2007 Gold Original Storyline_

**Disclaimer**: When I'm not on PoT, I'm on crack. (Credited to my sister)

Prince of Tennis/Tennis no Oujisama was created by Konomi Takeshi. This work is a piece of fanfiction and no part of it is attributed to Konomi-san and/or any other entity holding any legal right(s) associated with and/or arising out of _The Prince of Tennis. _It was written purely out of fanservice and is not to be used for profit or any association with Konomi-san or aforesaid entities.

**Title:** Blame It On Echizen

**Notes:** This started out because of the music video for the song _Birthday _by Aozu, where Seigaku as The Band of Princes go on a road trip! I loved the way they looked, but I wanted it with tennis. So I decided I'd try to write something tennis-based and fun... and just different. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it.

P.S. Uh, I imagined that they all went on to Seigaku high school together. It's my little flight of fantasy.

* * *

**Part I – Echizen's Great Idea**

It was all Echizen's idea, to begin with, and he was duly credited—or blamed—for it. In his defence, it has to be said that Echizen had always been a bit of a loose cannon where tennis was concerned, and when you added Momoshiro Takeshi and grape-flavoured Ponta to the mix, you got something of an explosive device just _waiting_ to be detonated. It didn't matter even if Momo had truly nothing to do with it; somehow apparently his very _presence_ at the scene of the crime tilted things heavily in favour of the preposterous. (There were actual statistics that proved this—just ask Inui Sadaharu).

It was a gorgeous day. An unbroken blue sky, sun shining down as if there were no tomorrow, tennis with Momo-_sempai_ (although they were actually playing doubles)—and Echizen and his Momo-_sempai_ had just won a two-set match, 7-5, 6-4, against Ibu Shinji and Kamio Akira at the street tennis courts. Admittedly Kamio was playing with a strapped knee and Shinji had developed cramps in his right leg in the middle of the first set all the way to the end of the second set, but hey, this was the first time Momoshiro and Echizen had beaten them in a doubles match. All's fair in love and tennis, after all.

The only fly in the ointment, in Echizen's not-very-humble opinion, was that the Seishun Gakuen School's tennis courts—all sixteen of them in the junior high, senior high _and_ university divisions—were being closed for two whole weeks for refurbishment. Fine, so it was the summer holidays, and in some quarters (i.e. the school administration) that was regarded as the best time to do whatever the workmen were going to do to the tennis courts, but it meant no team practice for the whole of the next two weeks. It was very, very disturbing. Members of the exalted Seigaku's boys' tennis club (senior high division), ever optimistic, had each decided to treat it as a sort of long-overdue, well-deserved rest period in which they would Do Their Own Thing. Usually that involved more tennis, which was why Momoshiro and Echizen were at the street tennis courts.

Momoshiro, flushed with victory, was in an especially good mood. "Oi, Echizen, d'you know, Tezuka-_buchou_ is trying to see if that tennis place up in the mountains is available next week! You remember, the weird place we went to last time in junior high?"

Kamio Akira looked up sorely from where he was sorely nursing his sore knee (he had banged into something stupid while doing stunts on stupid Momoshiro's stupid bicycle the other day). "What, you got thrown off your own school's tennis courts?"

Momoshiro snorted. "We're not that dumb."

Kamio gritted his teeth, feeling even more out of sorts, because Momoshiro hadn't risen to the bait. Maybe the idiot's co-captaincy of the tennis team with Kaidou Kaoru a couple of years ago in junior high was working wonders. "Hey, _we_ got thrown off our school's tennis courts before. See where it got us?"

"What, the street tennis courts?" asked Momoshiro, all innocence, as if he didn't know that Fudomine's tennis regulars had become a famous fearsome fighting team as a result.

Echizen watched in a leisurely manner as Momoshiro and Fudomine's Kamio got into another one of their squabbles. It was less heated this time round, probably because Tachibana An wasn't around for Momo-_sempai_ to show off and Kamio-san to get all hot and bothered over.

"... what, and hold our practices on the street tennis courts? Are you mad?!"

"What, now you think you're too good for the street tennis courts, huh?"

The argument was beginning to sound a bit ridiculous, as always. To give them credit, though, it was better than the time they came to blows over the colour of their grip tape and which one looked cooler.

Echizen tilted his head back and let the Ponta flow down his throat in one long, ice-cold draught. He thought hard about what Momoshiro had said. Oh, yes, he certainly remembered those tennis courts in the mountains… sloping courts, tennis balls that flew back in your face when you hit them, or else went bouncing in wrong directions, at bizarre angles... He liked playing tennis, sure, but he also liked tennis balls that he could understand, and tennis courts that were level, thank you very much. He preferred to avoid any weird science if he could.

"Momo-_sempai_."

Momoshiro Takeshi turned immediately, swatting away Kamio like some pesky fly. "Yeah, Echizen?"

"Tezuka-_buchou_ wants to go to the mountain place again?"

"Yeah." Momoshiro grinned down affectionately at Echizen. "Remember those weird courts?" He reached out to snatch the eternal little white cap off Echizen's head.

Echizen neatly avoided him and Momoshiro's hand slapped the empty air instead. It was the twentieth time in two hours that Echizen had successfully avoided Momo-_sempai_'s roving hand, though it didn't stop Momoshiro from trying again and again, ad infinitum. It made Echizen feel like Karupin, forever batting away Momo-_sempai_'s itchy fingers.

"Momo-_sempai_..."

"Hmm?" Momoshiro was still engaged in trying to steal Echizen's cap—unsuccessfully, it might be said, but not for want of trying.

"I want to play tennis."

Momoshiro's hand halted in mid-air. He understood that Echizen was trying to say something. Handling Echizen was a bit like taking care of a temperamental, but very cute kitten. You had to let it have its say, even though it didn't make sense half the time. "Okay..."

"Momo-_sempai_." Echizen turned to face Momoshiro, his eyes a brilliant olive-gold in the sunlight. "I want to play tennis on _every_ street tennis court in Tokyo."

Momoshiro narrowed his eyes, wrapping his mind around the enormity of that concept. Then his face broke out into one huge, blazing grin. "Echizen, what a _great_ idea!"

Echizen blinked. "… really?"

Momoshiro continued to beam at him like a polished copper pan. "Of course! Why didn't we think of this before?"

Echizen wondered about that, too.

Kamio Akira stared at the two Seigaku boys in growing disbelief. _Didn't_ these two bobble-headed dodos get it? _Every_ street tennis court in Tokyo? There were probably _hundreds_ of them! They'd be playing until winter set in! Plus at least three-quarters of those courts were impossible to book in the summer! They were always fully booked! The very idea was madness! Enough to commit them into an asylum for years! What were they thinking! Plus, hadn't Momoshiro just said that holding their tennis practices on the tennis courts was a mad idea?!

Now, Kamio was sort of fond of Momoshiro and Echizen. They were pretty good friends, after all, once you looked past their frequent arguments and attempts to show each other up. Still, you'd never get Kamio to admit that without sousing him with a couple of barrels of quality _sake_. Like the good friend that he was, Kamio considered himself proper authority to give advice, if only to ensure that his rivals (in love and tennis) didn't end up someplace where he couldn't even challenge them to tennis matches. Whereupon Kamio, with all the wisdom of the sages through the ages, pronounced:

"Mad, mad, you're both mad..."


	2. Chapter 2

© 2010 Gold

**Title**: Blame It On Echizen

**Part 2: **We're All In This Together

**Author: **Gold  
**Disclaimer: **_Prince of Tennis _is created by Konomi Takeshi. This work is a piece of fanfiction and no part of it is attributed to Konomi-san or any other entity holding any legal right associated with and arising out of _Prince of Tennis _. It was written purely out of fanservice and it is not to be used for profit or any false association with Konomi-san or aforesaid entities.

**Author's Notes**:

1. Written just 'cause I wanted to.

2. In my fantasy world, everybody moves on together to Seishun Gakuen High School and makes it to the regulars. Friendships like that are too precious and schooldays like these are too rare... and I know this only with the benefit of hindsight, so I hope the boys stay together.

* * *

**Part 2 – We're All In This Together**

"First aid kit, maps, emergency numbers…"

Oishi Syuuchirou, aged seventeen, was the much-admired _fukubuchou_ of the Seishun Gakuen tennis team (senior high division). He was also one half of one of Japan's best doubles pairs on the senior high school tennis circuit—and, Echizen Ryoma reflected wryly, fully deserving of the mother hen tag.

"…emergency first aid kit, torches, bicycles…" fretted Oishi, wringing his hands.

_Bicycles? We're sitting on 'em_, Echizen wanted to say, fully exasperated. _And _why_ do we need _torches_? It's daytime! _

It was a fine Friday morning. Breezy, too. Sun was up, shining rather brightly. The time was a bit early—quarter to seven—but they were all there: Tezuka-_buchou_ (who was going to stop being _buchou_ once the summer was over), Oishi-_fukubuchou_ (who was running through some emergency checklist more suited for earthquakes and tsunamis than little road trips), Eiji-_sempai_ (particularly bouncy this morning, Echizen noted), Fuji-_sempai_ (smiling happily over nothing in particular), Inui-_sempai_ (putting the final touches to the training menu for this trip), Kawamura-_sempai_ (who, Echizen was glad to see, had charge of two picnic baskets of prodigious size), Kaidoh-_sempai_ (clad in a black sleeveless vest, and doing some stretches as he waited patiently) and Momo-_sempai_ (who was just as restless as Echizen and kept ringing the bell on his bicycle impatiently).

And the reason that they were all gathered there was because of Momoshiro Takeshi.

When his Momo-_sempai_ had first mooted the idea of getting the entire Seigaku team along, Echizen had resisted. Powerfully. All he wanted to do was play tennis, so why was Momo-_sempai_ trying to make such a song and dance out of it? He just couldn't see how they were going to convince the whole team to come along, particularly as most of them were third-years on the brink of retiring from the team. Their most pressing concern was university entrance examinations.

"Rubbish, Echizen," Momo-_sempai_ had replied with a snort. "Exams? You watch me and see."

Echizen had watched, and marvelled, and had been forced to conclude grimly that Momo-_sempai_ was about the sneakiest person ever to walk the streets of Seishun, if one excepted Fuji-_sempai_.

Momoshiro first approached Kikumaru Eiji. He explained to Echizen his simple but obvious logic: "Eiji-_sempai_ will do anything to get out of studying for the exams. See? And once we've got him, we're halfway to getting Oishi-_sempai_. " Momoshiro had paused thoughtfully. "Only halfway, because Oishi-_sempai_ has a huge sense of responsibility and so we need to work a bit harder on him…"

Momoshiro's idea of working harder on Oishi Syuuichirou involved appealing to Oishi's strong and deeply sentimental feelings for the team. Echizen listened, trying not to choke on his Ponta, as Momoshiro warbled endlessly to Oishi about how this was the _final final _chance for them all to get together and have a group outing for old times' sake because all the _sempai_swere going to be studying for the examinations and wouldn't have time to come down to the tennis courts and Momoshiro and all the other juniors would really miss them, et cetera. Barely a minute into the conversation, Oishi had caved in like butter melting in the hot sun and promised fervently to do all necessary and more.

"All I need now is to get Fuji-_sempai_, and we'll have Tezuka-_buchou_ and Taka-_san_!" Momoshiro had announced confidently thereafter.

Echizen didn't think Fuji-_sempai_ had that much influence with _buchou_ where matters like this were concerned—and had said so.

Momoshiro had rolled his eyes in response: "Haven't you noticed, Echizen? The end result of Tezuka-_buchou_'s thinking is always exactly the same as Fuji-_sempai_. It's just that they've got different ways of getting there. It's like maths—there are different ways of working out the sums to get to the same answer! See? I've already got Oishi-_sempai_, Echizen. Just as soon as I get Fuji-_sempai_, Tezuka-_buchou_ won't say no, because he trusts Oishi-_sempai_ and he respects Fuji-_sempai_'s opinion. Oishi-_sempai_ plus Fuji-_sempai _equals Tezuka-_buchou_. See?"

Echizen saw. What he couldn't understand was how Momoshiro was going to get Fuji Syuusuke to agree, because Fuji Syuusuke was not by any means a baby born yesterday. However—

"Piece of cake," Momoshiro Takeshi had assured him happily.

It _was_.

Momoshiro had telephoned Fuji and launched passionately and persuasively into a long speech about the importance of Fuji Syuusuke's support to this idea Echizen had, and didn't Fuji-_sempai_ think it would be fun, and wasn't it just like Echizen to come up with something so odd, and would Fuji-_sempai_ please-please-_please_ say yes?

Fuji-_sempai_ said yes.

"You see," Momoshiro had explained triumphantly to a suitably dumbfounded Echizen, "Fuji-_sempai_'s got an awfully soft heart, especially for cute little _kouhai_ like you."

Echizen had a sudden, primeval urge to barf in his Momo-_sempai_'s face, and it was with great heroism that he fought off his need to hurl up his lunch.

Momoshiro blithely continued, with no idea that he had just escaped a fate worse than death: "Plus you don't know Fuji-_sempai_ like I do—Fuji-_sempai_ knows what I'm up to, but he's got a heart like a marshmallow when it comes to us, Echizen. Maybe even softer than Oishi-_sempai_'s. That's why he goes along with Eiji-_sempai_'s mad ideas sometimes. – Now, who's next?"

As duly predicted by Momoshiro, Kawamura Takashi fell in line—and, more importantly, voluntarily offered to provide the food. Most astonishingly, Tezuka-_buchou_ also came quietly as well, agreeing immediately (although he didn't offer anything, no sir).

"Probably informed beforehand by Fuji-_sempai_ and Oishi-_sempai_," Momoshiro had remarked nonchalantly in passing, and didn't appear surprised at all.

Echizen thought then that it was beginning to lurch out of control somewhat—he almost wished he hadn't had that idea. But Momo-_sempai_ seemed to be having a lot of fun hauling in everybody, so Echizen kept his mouth shut. Who was he to begrudge his poor, bored _sempai_ some fun in life?

Inui Sadaharu proved the most difficult of all to tackle.

"Momoshiro, there are three hundred and seventy-five street courts in Tokyo. It is now summer, and at any one time, two hundred and ninety-seven of the available courts would be booked. Our chances of finding the remaining seventy-eight free street courts are below four point seven two percent, with a margin of error of zero point five three percent. According to my calculations, I estimate that in order for us to be able to play on _all_ the street tennis courts, we could take two months, and seventeen days. Margin of error: thirteen days."

The statistics were enough to make even Echizen re-consider the wisdom of trying to play tennis on _every_ street tennis court in Tokyo.

But Momoshiro was not to be deterred. "Inui-_sempai_!" he exclaimed, so loudly that a couple of sparrows in the nearby bushes flew off in fear. "I knew you'd understand! That's exactly why it's going to be so much fun!"

It took all of Echizen's will-power not to spew out the contents of his grape-flavoured Ponta.

Momoshiro barrelled on: "Inui-_sempai_, didn't you just invent some more Inui Juices?"

Echizen blinked and a large drop of sweat trickled down the side of his face. He lunged forward and attempted to grab Momoshiro's mobile phone, but Momoshiro simply held it out of reach.

"What an excellent idea, Momoshiro. It so happens that I have spent the last two weeks perfecting a new line of Inui Ultra-New Ultra-Potent Ultra-Super Ultra-Juices. I need some test subjects."

In fact, Inui became so jubilant, once he had fully appreciated the vista of possibilities opening up before him, that he personally promised to procure that Kaidoh Kaoru would come along. Since Kaidoh Kaoru tended to take Inui's words as gospel, it was quite easy to see that he would not pose an obstacle to Momoshiro's grand plans of bringing everyone in.

"That settles that," Momoshiro said finally, snapping his mobile phone shut.

And so 'twas recorded in the annals of history that the regulars of the Seigaku's boys' tennis club (senior high school division) gathered bright and early one morning to be part of Echizen's Great Idea.


End file.
